13 Post-Gym Mistakes That Could Ruin Your Workout

These habits could sabotage your weight loss or make you more likely to get injured. Avoid them!

You reach for a sports drink

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While it’s important to stay hydrated after a workout—even a 1 percent decrease in hydration can significantly impact your athletic performance—you probably don’t need a sports drink, which can contain unnecessary calories. You don’t need to replace electrolytes unless you’ve had an intense workout that lasted more than an hour, so plain water is probably sufficient, says Jessica Crandall, RDN, CDE, spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. “I just encourage hydration through water because that’s the best way to get adequately hydrated,” she says.

You skip the cool down

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Stopping too fast could make you feel sick if your body doesn’t get the chance to recover. Your temperature rises and your blood vessels widen during physical activity, and your body needs the chance to get them back to normal, says Melissa Leber, MD, FACEP, assistant professor of orthopaedics and emergency medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. “You can feel very light-headed if you don’t cool down and go straight to the shower,” she says. If you have a fitness tracker, make sure your heart rate is down to 100 or lower before you wrap up your workout. These are the 9 treadmill mistakes that make trainers cringe.

You don’t stretch

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For the biggest gains in flexibility, stretch right after your workout. Because your muscles are already warm from the exercise, they’ll be able to lengthen more, so you can build a better range of motion. Stretching might not give you immediate injury protection, but your body will be better primed in the future. “It doesn’t prevent injury unless you’re looking down the road,” says Dr. Leber. “If the range of motion in your joints is better, you’re less prone to injury.” These are the 7 exercise mistakes that make you look older.